Oh my gosh, a game that actually got a 10 from me. I must be getting soft.
Anyway, Strikers 1945 II is the sequel to the fantastic shooter, Strikers 1945.
It is truely a great sequel in all forms, and builds on the original in leaps
and bounds.

Strikers 1945 II follows the same line as the original, an overhead shooter filled
with enemies and transforming anachronism bosses, cool powerups, and nice bomb
effects. There is increased adrenaline-pumping action here, as there are MANY
more enemies that come at you in this game. There is a legitimate reason for this,
as will be explained below.

In reviewing the original Strikers 1945, I totally forgot to mention the powerup system.
In the original Strikers 1945, when you gain powerups, you get small "helper planes" that
follow your main plane and fire along with you to help you destroy enemies. If you
held the fire button for a few seconds, the little planes would assemble in front of
your main plane. Release the button and the little planes would go off into a
specific formation and do some crazy techniques like firing huge lasers, homing
in on opponents, or filling the screen with gunfire.

In Strikers 1945 II, the helper planes have been removed. This will come as a
major shock to fans of the first game (like me). This time, when you gain powerups,
you increase the firepower of your main plane ONLY. Where the real power comes
from is the level meter located in the lower portion of the screen. As you kill
enemies, the meter increases. Now you know why I said that there are MANY more
enemies to shoot in this game. When it reaches a certain level (from lv.1 to lv. 3)
you can hold the fire button for a few seconds to charge up. When you release the
button, your plane does a special attack. The higher the level of the meter when
you do the special attack, the more spectacular, bigger, and more damaging your
special attack becomes. This can actually make up for the loss of the helper
planes. In a sense, the helper plane attacks have been moved to the main planes
themselves. For example, in the original Strikers, the P-38's helper planes fired
homing missiles. In this game homing missiles now come from the P-38 itself.

Many of the planes from the original Strikers are gone--technically. The P-38
(it just wouldn't be Strikers w/o a P-38) and the Shinden are the only visibly
returning planes. There are 6 planes to choose from total, so that leaves four
new planes. I've looked carefully and have seen that the four new planes have
the same firing animation of the missing Striker planes, so in a sense, the old
planes are still there. The one truly changed thing is the bombs. The P-38 of
the first Strikers has a different bomb now. The special attack is its original
bomb attack. Build your meter up to level 3 and relive the old bomb days of glory
from the original Strikers. The new bomb attack is a formation of other planes
that attack the enemies.

You want some more deja vu? If anyone misses the Spitfire's huge laser bomb, pick
the Pancake (this is THE plane, I mean, just how can you pass up a plane with a
name like Pancake)and use its special attack at level 3--ahh, refreshing--ok, it's
blue, but still. . . . Want the Zero's homing helper plane attack? Pick the
Hayate. It's normal powerup releases helper planes--truely a help in this
game.

Some rundown info:

Graphics: Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. If that isn't enough--perfect. If you
want something else--perfect. If you are begging for a different opinion--perfect.
Ports the arcade exactly to the pixel. No difference, no lessening, just exact and
excellent. Whoops! Well, there IS one slight lessening effect. The level meter
is squished in the normal game. Play the side-scrolling version though. . .

Control: Great. Like the original Strikers, the control is good and tight. No
complaints here either.

Music: I really only liked one stage's music, but the rest are decent. Really
the same as the original. They are all new tracks, but really just provide good
background noise. Boss music is ok, nothing spectacular. As before, it's really
drowned out by all the explosions.

Why did this game get a 10 when it's equally good predecessor got a 9? They
removed those annoying black bars and gave you use of the whole screen--or did
they? Can't remember :P Maybe I just got used to it and didn't notice or care.
Yeah, now I could enjoy the game just like it's arcade counterpart.

Just to give a clue as the enemy number increase. The Strikers 1945 games give
your stats after you win. They tell how many enemies you shot down and how any gold
bars (for points) you collected in each mission. In the original Strikers, I
could only get a max of 150-155 for a shootdown--and then on only one mission that
threw hordes of enemies at you. In Strikers II, you can get 200+ EASILY for
SEVERAL of the missions.

More morphing bosses are in this game (a trait of the Strikers series), but some
of them don't seem as impressive as the original Strikers' bosses. Some of the
better ones are the mulipart battleship and that hated Submarine boss. The boss
of the game is an organic organism, unlike that weid Star boss of the first game.
Ha! No crabs! Guess the Strikers II fold moved to land when they developed the
game.

PSX goodies:

Just like the original, they load the PSX with some extras. A totally rad intro
starts the game off (man, I wish you could do teamwork like those guys do--the
way the Hayate gets a bad guy off the Pancake is totally cool). A spanking bonus
which really gave this game its 10 was the addition of an option which gives you
a rundown on each plane. Consider it the "omake" of Strikers II. It's all in
spoken Japanese though, so I couldn't get anything out of it. But it's still all
the stuff. They tell you different things on each plane, all the while the plane
is slowly rotating in full FMV glory. A great addition to the game.

Those three playing modes are back. One thing I noticed is that that "side-scrolling"
version makes the level meter appear exactly like the arcade version. The normal
game squishes the meter (nothing to complain about), while the side-scrolling version
makes it into its actual size. I still can't get used to the side-scrolling version
though. That other "screen-moves-with-you" mode is there too, but I don't mess
with it.

One thing they removed that I wished they didn't is that you don't get to see your
pilots if you win without continuing. They do give you a weird logo though. You
know how some pilots would paint decorations on their planes (like a type of ownership
symbol)? This is what the logos are like. They are funny and give some incentive
to play all the planes.

Any shooter fan and especially fans of the original Strikers 1945 should pick up
a copy of Strikers 1945 II. You won't be disappointed at all.